Little Moments

One of my favorite moments of the day happens first thing in the morning. Grace crawls into bed with me bringing books and stuffed animals with her. Sometimes we snuggle and we fall back asleep for a few minutes. Sometimes she'll try to get me to wake up by kissing my cheek and then asking me to read her stories. Sometimes she'll let me snooze a little longer while she silently 'reads' her books beside me. And sometimes we'll just lay there and talk about random things- what we want to eat for breakfast, what we want to do that day, stories about what she was like as an infant (she especially likes it when I retell the story of her birth).

I also like watching her when she's at play. She has quite the imagination. She asked me to make a puppy with her blocks and I was at a loss on how to do it. I finally told her I didn't know how. Without hesitation, she said, "Here let me show you, Mama. Put this here for the body, this one for the tail, and here's his head." And where a minute ago there was just a bunch of random shaped blocks, my girl transformed them into an amazing puppy. There's nothing like looking at the world through an innocent child's eyes where anything is possible.

I love that she is such a girly-girl. She adores shoes! If we go into the store and she spots the shoe section, she automatically starts taking off her shoes and begs me to let her try some on. I found her like this the other day. She had found a stash of her old shoes that no longer fit and she was methodically trying on each pair. When I told her they were too small, she would sigh dramatically and say, "Oh! But I love them!"

For a while, after already tucking her into bed, Grace got into the habit of calling out for books and toys that she just had to sleep with. Eventually I instituted the rule that she must gather whatever she wanted to sleep with before turning in for the night because once she was in bed there would be no more additions. So now when we announce bedtime, she runs around the house looking for her favorites that she wants to join her in bed.

These are just a few little moments that probably aren't significant to anyone except me. But I'm so very grateful for them and the countless others that I get to experience with my sweet girl every day.